


Domesticus

by Pegasus143



Series: Banned Together Bingo 2020 [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Human, Autistic Cole Anderson, Background Amanda Stern/Original Chloe | RT600, Bullying, Coming Out, Consensual Deadnaming, Disabled Markus (Detroit: Become Human), F/M, Gender Dysphoria, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sex Work, Leo Manfred and Markus are Half-Brothers, Leo Manfred has ADHD, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Rated E for one smut scene at the end, Sexism, Trans Female Character, Trans Josh (Detroit: Become Human), background Hank Anderson/Connor - Freeform, everyone is bi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:42:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 11,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25889794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pegasus143/pseuds/Pegasus143
Summary: After a very disastrous lunch, Headmistress Stern tasks Josh, Markus, North, and Simon with bringing unity to the four houses... somehow. Will they be able to get past their differences, and perhaps find something they didn't know they were looking for?
Relationships: Josh/Markus/North/Simon (Detroit: Become Human)
Series: Banned Together Bingo 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761265
Kudos: 7
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Bingo Square for Chapter 1: Witchcraft

Markus walked up the stairs from the dungeon to the Great Hall, rubbing his right eye a little to try to clear his vision. _I must just be tired. Or maybe it’s stress from the prefects’ meeting, and the Quidditch match against Gryffindor we’re going to have this weekend_. His stomach grumbled, a reminder that he hadn’t eaten lunch yet since the Slytherin prefects’ meeting ran late. There would certainly be food left, but the question was whether or not he’d have enough time to eat his fill before going to his afternoon classes.

However, it looked like his wish of a peaceful lunch wouldn’t be granted today. The Slytherin table was empty – he’d think he was simply that late if it wasn’t for the absolute chaos going on in the rest of the room. Some of the Ravenclaws at the next table were attempting to study, but some of the Slytherin students had joined their table, making it overcrowded. The Hufflepuffs were being amicable as usual, with some of the older students having conjured chairs so that extra students could sit at the ends of the table. The Gryffindor table had somehow gotten louder than usual, but at least it didn’t look like anyone had gotten into a fight.

As he stepped further into the hall, Markus noticed that the Slytherin table wasn’t _completely_ empty – his brother, Leo, was seated at their usual place, near where members of the Manfred family had carved their name-runes into the wood under the table. “Leo?” Markus asked as he approached. “ _What_ is going on?”

Leo looked up as Markus slid onto his usual spot on the bench, his cheek pink where he’d been leaning against his hand. “It’s a long story,” he mumbled, picking at his food.

“Whatever it is… we’ll have to deal with it eventually,” Markus said, not even attempting to get himself anything to eat. Seeing the state of the room, he knew he’d probably get interrupted by _something_.

Leo sighed, his fork clattering against his plate as he dropped it. “So… I _may_ have put a spell on the table to make it so only Slytherins could sit here…”

“And it didn’t work?” Markus asked.

Leo shook his head, wearing a guilty smile as he ran a hand through his messy brown hair. “Apparently you and I are the only ones who can sit here now.”

Markus threw his hands up before answering the question he knew his brother was going to ask next. “No, I have _no idea_ how to fix it this time. Why did you even decide to do that?”

Leo shrugged. “Just got an idea in my head and ran with it, I guess.”

Markus tried to think about some way he could counter the charm. _How do you charm an object to repel everyone except two specific people?_ “Were you… thinking about us while you cast the spell, or something?”

Leo shook his head. “No, I’m getting better at concentrating on my spells. Promise!” He was clearly nervous, his leg brushing against Markus’ as it bounced.

“I believe you, okay?” Markus said. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened so we can fix it. I’m not blaming you for anything.”

Leo nodded. “I know. You know how these things go.”

“ _Glacius_!” Markus heard a younger student shout. The tell-tale bang of a failed spell followed.

“We’ll talk later, okay?” Markus asked, getting up from the bench.

“Sure,” Leo said, smiling weakly. “I’ll save you some food.” He packed up a few of the easier-to-carry food items before leaving the Great Hall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bingo Square: Real Witch (well, wizard, in this case) Spells

The Ravenclaw table was a little louder than usual today, considering that there were more people at it. Josh had tried asking a couple of the Slytherins why they weren’t sitting at their table, but the only thing he’d been able to figure out was that their table had somehow repelled them from sitting at it. He wanted to go over to their table and experiment a little, find out what was wrong with it, but it was his job as prefect to make sure the Ravenclaw table didn’t get out-of-hand during meals.

“ _Glacius_!” one of the younger students shouted. Turning towards the commotion, he saw a Slytherin girl pointing her wand at Max, a third-year Ravenclaw who usually kept to himself, though he enjoyed getting into friendly debates with Josh. Apparently he’d chosen the wrong person to argue with today. The Slytherin’s prosthetic metal hand caught the light as she held out her wand, which emitted a bang as she attempted to cast a spell.

Josh rose from his seat and walked toward them, pointing his wand. “ _Expelliarmus_!” Both of the students’ wands came flying to him.

A Slytherin prefect with defined muscles under his bronze skin jogged up to them. Even though Josh didn’t know much about Quidditch, he still recognized the captain of the Slytherin team. “ _Zoe_ ,” the other prefect said, “What are the rules about dueling?”

“No dueling outside of the club,” she said, rolling her eyes a little as she pushed back her shoulder-length blonde hair. “You aren’t going to owl my mum, are you?”

“No, I don’t technically have to since your spell didn’t fire properly. But next time I will. Ten points from Slytherin.”

“Can I have my wand back?”

The other prefect looked expectantly at Josh. He handed the wand over, and the prefect immediately handed it back to the girl.

An image of Josh giving Max his wand back flashed through his head. He easily recognized it as coming from Max. As a natural Legilimens who was also mute and Muggle-born, he’d received training in his abilities from a young age, and used Legilimency as his primary form of communication at Hogwarts. He’d mentioned once that he also knew British Sign Language, and usually used that with his family and others outside the wizarding community, though by the way he complained Josh assumed that not very many Muggles knew BSL. It was certainly uncommon for wizards to know, but at least wizards understood what Legilimency _was_.

Josh shook his head. “You know the rules. If you get into a duel, you get your wand taken away. It’s only until the end of lunch, then you’ll get it back.”

A couple more images flashed through Josh’s head. He saw Zoe failing the _glacius_ charm repeatedly during Defense Against the Dark Arts, and then Max refusing to let her sit at the Ravenclaw table.

“That’s not a reason to not let her sit. It doesn’t matter what spells she can or can’t do, she still gets to eat. Five points from Ravenclaw.”

Max gave him a look of frustration before heading back to the Ravenclaw table.

As Josh tucked Max’s wand away, the Slytherin prefect approached him. “I’m sorry about Zoe. She has a bit of a temper.”

Josh raised an eyebrow. “And you didn’t take her wand away?”

The other prefect gave him a confused look. “No… that would be cruel. Like taking away a sibling or something.”

_A sibling?_ “Wands are just tools, not people.”

The prefect shook his head. “I’m starting to see why Zoe tried to start a duel. If you think you’re so smart, why don’t you fix the Slytherin table?”

“Fine. I will. Then you’ll see.”

Josh approached the table. _A spell would be the most likely… probably a charm, since the table changed behaviors. I should look for those._ “ _Specialis revelio_.” Josh smirked at the Slytherin as spell residues began to appear. Even though it was a difficult spell for a fifth-year, the other prefect still didn’t look impressed.

_He will be once I’ve figured this out._ He recognized a light purple mist around the table – a clear mark of the _adtigere_ charm, commonly used to prevent others besides the owner of an item from using it. Unlike the caterwauling charm, this one simply repelled other people, rather than setting off an alarm.

“The caster used _adtigere_ ,” Josh said, “But the table is repelling all of the Slytherins, even though it belongs to them. It might have backfired.”

“My brother and I sat here just fine,” the Slytherin said defensively, sitting down on one of the benches to demonstrate. “It’s everyone else that can’t sit.”

Near where he’d sat down, Josh noticed a faint hint of gold that seemed like it was coming from under the table. “Could you move, please?” he asked, crawling under the bench. He stayed close to the floor, not wanting to accidentally touch it and be repelled. The gold was clearly covering a small but well-defined area of the underside of the table – the work of the _deceptus_ charm. “ _Aparecium_.” The gold coloring disappeared, but he still couldn’t see anything, the lighting being too dark. “ _Lumos_.”

He gasped. There were runes _everywhere_ – tiny little ones that he could barely decipher. _Looks like I’m a real translator now._ As he scanned through the lines of runes, his mind started racing. _I don’t recognize any of these. They look nothing like what’s in the textbooks. What if I can’t figure this out?_ His breath hitched and he blinked back tears. _I have to do this. I’m sure I have the highest marks in Ancient Runes – the professor’s said I’m on my way to getting an “O”. But what if I let him down? What if I let all of Ravenclaw down?_

He closed his eyes, trying to breathe at a steady pace. When he opened them, he recognized one of the symbols – _mannaz_ , usually translated as the letter “m”. It was repeated over and over, albeit in a modified form. Repeated next to it, was a modified _fehu_ , or a letter “f”. _They’re repeated… and the runes coming before each repeat aren’t. And the modifications are consistent, even through the different forms of handwriting._

The obvious conclusion was that they were names. Not just any names, but names of people in the Slytherin prefect’s family. _What was his name again?_ He closed his eyes, trying to remember. _The Quidditch matches… the announcer would say…_

“Manfred,” Josh said, crawling out from under the table. He muttered a brief _nox_ under his breath, extinguishing his wand tip.

The other prefect raised an eyebrow.

“The runes, under the table. They interacted with the spell, causing the table to only allow itself to be used by those whose runes are engraved on it. You and your brother are the only Slytherins who’ve carved your names who are at Hogwarts, which is why you were the only ones able to sit there.” Josh spoke quickly, excited about his discovery.

“Shh,” the Slytherin said, glancing around. “We’re not actually supposed to carve our names until we graduate Hogwarts, but my brother Leo and I decided to do it early, after learning _deceptus_. I didn’t realize runes could alter spell effects.” Even though his expression was as steady as always, Josh could see something akin to admiration in his eyes – a mismatched blue and green. _It’s like fate or something._ _Maybe I should’ve kept up with practicing divination._

“My name is Josh,” he said, extending a hand.

“Markus.” His grip was firm and steady, like he’d practiced how to shake hands a million times.

“I think I know how to fix this,” Josh said after Markus had let go. “ _Collectiva._ ” He touched the table with the tip of his finger, sitting down when it showed no sign of repulsion.

He smiled when he saw Markus Manfred, Slytherin prefect and Quidditch captain, looking awe-struck at him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bingo Square: Strong Women Leaders

“North! Look at my hair!” Alice, one of the Gryffindor third-years, called out.

For most of the kids, North wouldn’t have turned back, especially when the headmistress had summoned her. Alice was a little different from the other kids. Even though North wasn’t a prefect during Alice’s sorting, she remembered how she’d flinched as the sorting hat was placed on her head. Every day after that, when many of the Gryffindors would study and socialize in the common room, she’d seen a piece of herself in Alice, who always hesitated before practicing a spell or entering a conversation.

When she turned around, North couldn’t help but smile. Alice had done her hair in a braid over her shoulder, the brunette locks mirroring her own auburn braid. “That’s really pretty! When did you learn how to do it?”

“I asked one of the other girls.”

“The nice one in your year? Emma?”

Alice nodded. Many of the younger students had a streak of misbehaving that was easily straightened out with a couple detentions, but she’d always kept to herself, doing everything to keep out of trouble. While North had gotten on nearly every other student’s and professor’s bad side at some point during her first four years, Alice would run to her dorm at the slightest hint of conflict. She’d needed prompting from North to even acknowledge the existence of the other girls in her dorm, much less ask them for favors. _What is someone like her doing in Gryffindor?_

“I have to get going now, but I’ll see you at dinner, okay?” North said, really not wanting to be late to this unexpected meeting with Headmistress Stern.

“Bye!”

As she walked, North started wondering what she’d done this time. She’d been to see Headmistress Stern several times before, but clearly was the only veteran in this, the other three prefects waiting around nervously among the Gargoyles in the corridor. “Roses!” she shouted to the third Gargoyle, who revealed a staircase. “Come on, let’s go,” she said to the three of them, heading up the staircase.

The headmistress was sitting at her desk when the four reached the top of the stairs. “Please take a seat,” she said, gesturing to the four chairs on the other side of the desk. She must’ve conjured them, seeing as there’d only been one chair around when North had been here in the past.

While the other three prefects looked around the room in wonder as they sat down, North turned her attention to a portrait sitting on the desk. It showed Headmistress Stern with a blonde witch, who North assumed was her wife. It was kind of weird to think about the professors having families outside of Hogwarts. Upon seeing North, they both waved in recognition, though they quickly turned back to looking fondly at each other. She couldn’t blame them – it must be nice, having someone you could trust so completely instead of having to be defensive of your right to just be. She’d be lying if she said that there weren’t some attractive witches and wizards at the school, including the three sitting next to her, but looks weren’t everything. She had to be _sure_ that she could trust them. Partially for her, but… also for Alice and the other kids. She’d never quite realized how they’d looked up to the prefects until she’d become one herself.

“I’m sure you all know what happened at lunch today,” Headmistress Stern said, drawing North out of her thoughts. “Dueling outside approved activities is completely unacceptable. However, this was not an isolated incident.” North noticed the Slytherin prefect tense up. “It is obvious that what once were _friendly_ rivalries between the houses have become more serious. We must address the root of this problem before it spreads further.”

As the headmistress looked at each of them, North found herself straightening her posture and smoothing down her robes. Headmistress Stern always carried herself with a certain elegance beyond her complex, braided up-do and robes of ever-changing color. It seemed to give her a certain level of defense, while also attracting the trustworthy kind of people.

“I’ve chosen the four of you to represent the four houses in a new Inter-House Committee. If you can foster a spirit of community between all four of the houses, I’ll let you continue it through your last two years at Hogwarts, and add more members as needed, subject to my approval.”

The Hufflepuff prefect raised his hand. She didn’t know him too well, having only seen him and the Ravenclaw prefect at the prefects’ meeting on the train and a couple times when they’d been scheduled to patrol the halls together. The Slytherin prefect she at least recognized from Quidditch matches, though she’d missed quite a few of those in previous years due to detentions.

“There’s no need for that here,” Headmistress Stern told the Hufflepuff.

“Oh – sorry.” After hearing him speak, she recognized him a bit more. He had an unmistakable American accent, making her curious as to why he was at Hogwarts. “Between classes, studying, prefect duties—“

“Quidditch practices,” the Slytherin interrupted.

“—how are we supposed to also run a committee?”

“Balancing your time will be a challenge, and I do expect you to take your duties seriously. However, I will relax your responsibilities as prefects – you will only be required to attend meetings with your house once a month instead of once a week, and you will be excused from night patrols. I will also inform your fellow prefects about this arrangement, and I will expect them to be accommodating. As long as you make progress toward your goal as a committee, you may make your own schedule for meetings and events as you see fit. I will also request that the staff give you space as needed.”

The other three prefects agreed quickly, as did North. While the other three chatted happily about being able to catch up on sleep as they left, she lingered in the headmistress’ office. “Our agreement is still standing?”

Headmistress Stern nodded. “Yes. You may remain a prefect and part of the committee as long as your behavior remains improved. I know you’ve always wanted to make changes, which is why I chose you to be part of the committee. It should be another good outlet for channeling your energy in a positive manner. However, if you fall back into repeated misbehavior, I will have to remove you from both of your positions, as it would set a poor example for the younger students.”

“Yes, Headmistress Stern.” When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she found the other three prefects waiting for her. She felt butterflies in her stomach at the gesture – Merlin, was she that pathetic? “So when are we going to meet?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bingo Square: Swearing

Simon was out of breath as he reached the top of the stairs going up to the seventh floor. He’d wandered about the sixth floor for a good while, looking for the troll tapestry that Markus had described, until he remembered that Brits numbered their floors differently from Americans. Pretty soon, he found the tapestry. _The room’s supposed to be right across from it…_

As he paced, a couple of students walked past, coming from the direction of the divination classroom. “Why is divination so fucking hard?” Cole, a third-year Hufflepuff, complained.

“ _Cole_ ,” Simon said. “Language.”

“Really?” he asked, stopping to talk to Simon while his classmate – a Gryffindor girl -- continued walking. “It’s just a fucking word! It doesn’t hurt anyone – my dad wouldn’t use it if it did!” His dads were both Aurors, to say the least.

“I know you’re allowed to swear at home, but there’s different rules in different places,” Simon explained for what felt like the millionth time this year. “At Hogwarts, the rule is that we don’t swear.”

Cole appeared to think about this for a minute as he twirled his wand between his fingers, the swishing causing his bangs to blow in the breeze. A few sparks shot out, mirroring his words before he even said them. “I still don’t get it, but whatever. Can I go now?”

“Yes. I’ll see you at curfew.” It was a minor enough rule that he probably didn’t need to have house points taken away.

As Cole continued down the hallway, Simon turned around, surprised to see that a door had appeared. _It wasn’t there the whole time… was it?_ He shrugged, pushing the door open. The room inside was rather cozy, even including a fireplace and four armchairs in the colors of the four houses. The yellow one was the only one left unoccupied.

“Simon!” Markus said, smiling brightly in a way that made Simon’s heart flip. North and Josh halted whatever conversation they were having. “Where were you?”

“I was dealing with a student,” Simon said as he sat down, not wanting to reveal that it was actually Americanisms that had caused him to be late. “I still can’t believe that I grew up thinking British people didn’t swear.”

“You’re American, right?” Josh asked.

Simon nodded, a little lost in his deep brown eyes.

“So why are you at Hogwarts?”

Normally, Simon would feel weird about all the questions, but he couldn’t help but answer Josh. “My parents travel a lot for work, so they wanted to send me to a boarding school,” Simon explained. “Ilvermorny has a really limited capacity and a lot of competition when compared to Hogwarts, and the idea of sending me to a British school seemed appealing to them, so here I am.”

“Should we get started?” Markus asked, standing up next to a chalkboard that Simon hadn’t noticed on the wall.

* * *

A while later, they decided that they should do an event involving all the houses, and that said event would work best in the Great Hall, considering the weather and the number of people involved. They still hadn’t come up with what to do.

“We should take a break,” Markus said, setting down the piece of chalk he’d been writing with.

“Really?” Josh asked. “We were just getting started!”

“So, Simon,” North said, “What was up with your student earlier? They were swearing, right? I thought Hufflepuffs were the good kids.”

Simon rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure we’re just as bad as the other houses. We just don’t self-sabotage by taking away house points left and right like everyone else.”

“So how do they learn not to do that stuff if you’re not punishing them? Do you give them detentions a lot?”

Simon shook his head. “No. We just… talk to them. The younger kids know the prefects well enough that they don’t want to disappoint us, and the older ones understand why the rules have to be followed.”

“So if a kid swears in the hallway… you have a conversation with them?” Josh asked. “That fixes the problem?”

Simon shook his head. “No, we do it before there’s any problems. Each of the prefects gets a subset of the students, and we have weekly conversations with them so that we get to know them. They really trust you then, and start coming to you when they have problems instead of breaking rules in order to solve the problem or letting them sit until they become worse.”

North nodded along, seeming oddly thoughtful for a Gryffindor. The way her eyes gleamed with the hint of an idea – was it weird that he found it attractive?

“Is this some sort of American thing?” Josh asked curiously.

Simon shook his head. “Lucy – one of the seventh-year prefects -- told us all about it at the beginning of the year, but I’m not sure if she’s the one who came up with it.”

“Well, I’m glad _I’m_ not a Hufflepuff,” Markus said. “I don’t have time to talk to a bunch of students individually every week. I’d rather just threaten to write their parents when they swear, and act on it if they keep doing so.”

Simon shrugged. He glanced down at his watch. “It’s getting late. We’d better head back before curfew. Should we try meeting again next week, like this?”

The four agreed on the same time and place before leaving.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose the prompt "Normalizes Trans Lives" to use for my free space.

Josh woke up to sunlight coming in through the curtains around. Yawning, he sat up and stretched a little. _Maybe I did a little too much extra studying last night after our meeting. I could skip the Quidditch match this afternoon, since Ravenclaw isn’t playing… but who am I kidding, it’s Slytherin versus Gryffindor. Everyone’s going to be there, even if it’s just to watch as chaos ensues._ He grabbed his shirt from the stack of clothing he’d laid out on the end of his bed the night before, slipping it on before performing a spell to make his chest appear more flat. _I’m glad I was sorted into Ravenclaw… I don’t think I would’ve known how to find this spell otherwise. And if I didn’t have it… I’d be miserable._ He finished getting dressed before opening the curtains around his bed. He packed his bag with the books and notes he needed for his study groups today – charms and potions – then headed down to the Great Hall.

* * *

A study group and two meals later, Josh walked out to the Quidditch pitch. Some of the other Ravenclaws had stayed behind at their table to study for longer, but he’d had enough stress for one day and really needed a break.

A loud roar sounded behind him. Turning around, he saw a group of Gryffindors surrounding North, who’d somehow enchanted her hat to roar like a lion. Some of the other students she was walking with had lions painted on their faces that also roared, though not as loudly as the hat.

“Like what you see?” North called to him, winking.

“It’s very creative,” Josh replied, having to talk louder than he would’ve liked in order to be heard over the noise of the students. Even though it was likely that no one could hear him, he still felt like his voice sounded too feminine, especially at that volume.

North’s lips moved as she casted a spell he couldn’t hear, then the loudest roar he’d ever heard sounded all around him. _Did she really just make all the lions roar in sync? That’s impressive. She’s smart for a Gryffindor._

“Good luck!” he yelled, giving her a small wave. She waved back before leading her students over to the Gryffindor section of the stands.

Josh made sure to be the first Ravenclaw prefect to get up to the stands. He stood near the front, directing the younger students in and making sure everyone had a place to sit. As a courtesy, the other students left him a spot in the first row – the best place for watching the game. Seeing Max among the students entering the stands – and looking a little sluggish – he offered the boy a friendly smile. “Are you excited for the game?”

Max shrugged half-heartedly, giving Josh a small smile that at least let Josh know that he appreciated the gesture. None of Max’s usual images popped up in his head, which was… concerning, to say the least. _He’s usually so talkative. Maybe he’s just tired?_ There wasn’t much he could do about it right now, especially since some of the students weren’t sitting as close together as they needed to in order to fit everyone in. _I’ll worry about it later._

Once it looked like there weren’t any more Ravenclaws coming, Josh sat down. He could tell there were still a bunch of students getting settled across the pitch in the Hufflepuff stands. They usually had a good showing to games, even ones they weren’t playing in, and would probably have attendance numbers rivaling those of Gryffindor and Slytherin today. He wondered what Simon was doing over there – it was probably all hands on deck for the Hufflepuff prefects, between making sure there was room for everyone, settling squabbles, and whatever else came up. He wished he could be closer to Simon, that they could actually see each other and maybe even have a conversation amidst the commotion.

_“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it’s the match you’ve been waiting for all season – Gryffindor versus Slytherin!”_

* * *

It was nearing on three hours into the match, and the two houses were evenly matched for points. Both captains had used their time-outs in order to give their players a break, but everyone was back in the sky now. At this point, it was down to the two seekers – whoever caught the tiny, golden snitch first would win the match for their team. Josh wasn’t even sitting down anymore, instead standing up with a pair of omnioculars clutched in his hands, watching Markus in his quest for the snitch.

One of the students next to Josh poked him in the arm. He put down the omnioculars, following where their finger was pointed. There, nearing the Ravenclaw stands, was the snitch.

Markus was the closest of the two seekers, going around the edge of the pitch in the counterclockwise direction. Josh’s heart leapt with anticipation as Markus drew closer. He was so close, in fact, that Josh could see the beads of sweat along his buzzed hair, so close that he could’ve reached out and touched him. Merlin, Markus was probably strong enough that he could lift Josh out of the stands and bring him on the broom _with him_ from this close. But instead of doing the movement Josh had seen him perform probably at least fifty times – leaning over and closing his right hand around the snitch – he didn’t. He flew right past it.

The Gryffindor seeker had seen it by then, and easily caught it. As a chorus of cheers and roars erupted in the stands, Josh realized that Markus was still incredibly close to the stands. He could see Markus’ furrowed brows and slight frown – clear signs of confusion.

Something was very, very wrong.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose "Disabled People" as an extra prompt to use for this chapter. Enjoy!

Markus put his right arm around one of his teammates as they left the field, framing it as a friendly pat on the back in order to cover up the fact that he currently couldn’t see anything out of his right eye. He gave a quick speech, praising what he’d seen of his team – they’d played well, even if he’d failed them in the end – and purposely waited until everyone else was gone before attempting to shower and change out of his Quidditch robes. After way too long and too many failed attempts at adjusting the water and not running into benches or lockers, he finished up and headed outside… where it would be obvious if he ran into something on his right side.

“Markus?” That was Leo, but Markus couldn’t see him. He turned his head to the right, Leo coming into his field of vision. He gave Markus a grin. “That took you long enough. It’s freezing out here.”

Markus sighed. That was probably just the first thing that popped into Leo’s head, but Markus was already running out of patience. “What do you want, Leo?”

“I just want to know if you’re okay. Your flying looked different today, and then at the end you didn’t catch the snitch when it looked like you should’ve been able to.”

_Shit. If Leo noticed, then basically everyone would’ve noticed._ He couldn’t help but think of Josh, Simon, and North. “Leo… I don’t want to talk about this.”

“We need to talk about this _sometime_ ,” Leo said quietly. “You know that could mean —“

“I _know_ ,” Markus said. “Better than you do. I watched for _years_ as his condition changed, getting worse and better, even before I understood what was going on and how it would affect me. And you just got to run off on adventures with your mom.”

“It wasn’t as fun as it sounds,” Leo said, without any hint of stubbornness that he would’ve had in a real argument. “At least you got to stay in one town your whole life, and you got to wake up in the morning knowing that you weren’t just going to be whisked away from any friends you’d made.” Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around Markus, pulling him into a hug. “But most of all, I wish I could’ve been there with you. I want to make it up to you now.”

“Leo…”

“Just let me help you with the little things, when you need them. Like you do for me when my mind is going so fast that I can’t sleep or when my focus is all over the place.”

_Some help_ would _be nice right now._ “Okay. Stay on my right until we get to the castle and there’s a wall there or something.” At least that way, he’d be able to walk in the open while also knowing if something was in that part of his vision.

They were about halfway to the castle when Leo spoke up again. “You’re not limping or anything.”

Markus shook his head slightly. “It’s not my leg, like Dad. It’s my eye. I literally can’t see you right now.”

“Oh. That would make sense, why you didn’t catch the snitch. But… what are you going to do about it now that you know it affects your playing?”

“I can sluff my way through practices, say I’ve been working on my own or something. No one’s going to say anything since I’m captain. Hopefully this flare will be over by our next match.”

“Flare? Like… fire?”

“No, it’s a period of time where there’s more symptoms, or a period of time where symptoms that you might have at other times get worse.”

“You’ve said before that Dad uses a wheelchair all the time now… but he can’t be having a flare all the time, can he?”

“Some symptoms stick around outside of flares, though they’re usually milder. He has enough that have accumulated that it’s easier for him if he uses his wheelchair.”

“Isn’t that…” Markus expected Leo to say something about it being hard or restrictive, the way most people did. “Scary?”

“It was best for everyone. My mom was the one who pushed for him to get it, because she wanted me to have a dad who would be there for me, not a dad that I would have to be a caregiver for. I guess I never really thought of it as scary when I was a kid. Just another cool thing, like magic. I guess now… I don’t know if I’m scared or not.”

They walked in silence once they got into the castle, until they were just outside the Slytherin common room. “I’m glad we’re not Muggles,” Leo said. “Otherwise I don’t think we would’ve ever met. I’m glad that I get to be your brother.”

“I wouldn’t choose anyone else in the world.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bingo Square: Seduction  
> This was a difficult prompt to figure out what to do, but finally I asked myself what I considered "seductive" and answered "communication", so here we are!

After the bust that was their first meeting, they tried again. Unfortunately, the meeting seemed to be heading very quickly in the same direction. “Maybe we should just quit for today,” North said, letting her head fall against the back of the red armchair.

“Maybe just a short break,” Josh conceded, putting down the chalk before sitting down in the blue armchair. He’d taken over the job of writing on the chalkboard after Markus nearly gave himself whiplash turning his head between the chalkboard and each of the other three prefects. _Slytherin would’ve won that match against us if he hadn’t had… well, whatever his problem is._

“Markus? Are you okay?” Simon asked.

“I would be if people stopped asking me that question,” Markus said dryly.

“Sorry. How are classes going for everyone?” Simon asked, quickly changing the subject.

North caught something a little more than appreciation in Markus’ eyes as he smiled at Simon.

“Potions is the worst right now,” Josh said. “I can’t get my amortentia right…”

North froze. _Amortentia?_

“I thought that wasn’t until sixth year?” Markus asked.

“It’s not taught in class until sixth year, but we usually work ahead in our study groups in Ravenclaw,” Josh explained.

_They actually teach amortentia in sixth year? But that’s…_ “That’s fucked up,” she said without thinking.

“What?” Josh asked. Suddenly, all eyes were on her. “Do you even _have_ study groups in Gryffindor?”

“That’s not a thing in –“

“Josh –“

North didn’t care what Simon or Markus had to say. “We help each other out and do just fine in our classes without being worry-warts that have study groups at all hours of the day and night, thank you very much!”

“Then why do you Gryffindors never seem to take anything seriously in classes?!”

“Because _maybe_ we know _a little better than you_ that there’s a whole world, whole lives for ourselves outside of this castle! That _nothing_ we do here is going to matter once we’re out of here, so the best thing to do is to just _survive_!”

“And maybe _some of us_ have people we’re trying to not disappoint!” Josh shot back.

_I’ve already disappointed my father, just by being born a girl. You can take my blood, but you can’t take my house. It’s all I have._

“Let’s take a break,” Simon said, stepping between them. North hadn’t even noticed that her and Josh had gotten out of their chairs, and were now standing mere _centimeters_ away from each other. She sat back down, tears pricking her eyes.

_What now? I’ve fucked up… again._

Markus got up from his chair, crossing the room to lean against the armrest of her chair. “What do you need right now?” he asked, his voice soothing in a way that made her heart beat faster.

“I need… I need someone to listen, and to understand. I didn’t mean that studying was fucked up. I meant that teaching amortentia at Hogwarts, and students just working on it without fully knowing or considering what it can do… _that’s_ fucked up.”

“Oh.”

“Josh, I’m sorry if it sounded like I was attacking you at first… but then we just kept going, and I felt like I had to defend myself. Being a Gryffindor is the one thing I _can_ be proud of.”

He pushed his armchair a little closer to hers before sitting down as well. “I’m sorry I didn’t take the time to understand. I’ve just been stressed lately. It feels like I’m not keeping up with the other Ravenclaws sometimes, and even though we usually get way ahead of everyone else, it still feels like I’m behind. I love how much I’ve learned, but sometimes we _are_ a little much. You’re right that there’s more out there to learn about, but it’s hard to see that from in here.”

North nodded. _We have a lot more in common than I thought._ “I guess that’s also what I was trying to say, that sometimes when you’re here, it feels like what everyone in your house thinks of you is more important than anything else. Maybe that’s how we ended up here.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Simon agreed.

“Yeah, but sometimes… it’s still nice just to be in your common room, knowing that you always have a place that has everything and nothing to do with the outside world,” Markus said. “I’d never give up being a Slytherin – it’s too important to me, to my family – but there’s times where maybe we need to blur the lines between houses a little. I mean, if Headmistress Stern hadn’t asked me to be a part of this, I never would’ve met any of you.”

“We’ve hardly talked…” North said, trying to understand, trying to see if he – as well as Simon and Josh – felt the same way that she did.

Markus sat back down in his own chair. “I feel like I can trust the three of you with anything. I haven’t told many people this, so please don’t say anything to anyone. There’s a disability that runs in my family that affects a lot of things, and right now it’s affecting my sight. I can’t see out of my right eye. And if you were wondering… that’s why I didn’t catch the snitch at the match on Saturday. That’s why I lost the match for Slytherin.”

“It’s not your fault that Slytherin lost the match,” Josh said. “You had an extra disadvantage compared to the Gryffindor seeker. Anyone who actually supports you – they’ll see that, if you tell them, and they won’t fault you for it. And if you just want to put the match behind you and not talk about it, we’ll support that, too.”

“Thank you,” Markus said.

All that – it made North want to say more, want to explain why she’d had her earlier outburst, because perhaps the most seductive thing in the world wasn’t a potion you could brew or a spell you could cast, but understanding and support that only came from communication.

“North?” Simon asked.

“What?”

“It seemed like you were lost in thought… did you have something you wanted to say?”

She took a couple of steadying breaths. “I want to explain why I reacted the way I did earlier about the amortentia. My father – he was desperate for a son. Carrying on the family name and all that. He was always pissed about having only girls, so he’d use amortentia on my mother so he could… so he could try again… he called it ‘liquid seduction’. She’d be so love-drugged that she didn’t notice how he treated his daughters. That’s why I consider Gryffindor my home…” She shuddered as a sob overtook her. “There. Now you know everything.”

A pair of soft footsteps approached. “Can we hug you?” Simon asked.

She nodded, leaning into his embrace.

“I don’t care how much my potions marks suffer,” Josh said, joining the embrace. “I’m never brewing that wretched thing again.

She felt Markus’ strong arms around her. “We’ll be there for you. You can have Gryffindor – and us.”

“Thank you,” she breathed. “But what exactly do you mean by ‘having us’? Because I’d really like to date all of you.”

They never did stop taking a break that day.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to use the extra prompt of "Confuses Children" for this chapter.

It was a typical afternoon of studying in the Hufflepuff common room. Well, Simon wasn’t getting _that_ much studying done. Not after everything that had happened with North, Josh, and Markus. He smiled to himself as he remembered all the little things now that they were dating – writing flirtatious notes back and forth with North during charms, getting to kiss Josh when they saw each other at lunch, holding hands with Markus as they walked between classes.

“Simon?” Cole asked, taking the seat across from him at the table where he was studying.

_Maybe I should’ve spent a little more time studying. Cole can talk for ages about certain subjects, and I know I’m the prefect that he’d rather come to when he wants someone to listen._ “Hi, Cole,” he said, marking the page in his transfiguration book before closing it and pushing it aside. “Do you have something you want to talk about?” He’d learned through trial and a lot of error that it was best to get directly to the subject with Cole, as he tended to become frustrated with small talk.

“I have a question, but I think it’s a ‘personal question’, and sometimes people think I’m being mean or something when I ask those types of questions,” he said, playing with the ends of his uniform’s yellow tie.

“Okay... how about you tell me what the question is, and I’ll tell you if I’m okay with answering it?” He really didn’t know what to expect, but at least this way he had a way out of it.

“I saw you holding hands with one of the Slytherins, so I thought you two were dating, but then I heard from one of my friends that you kissed one of the Ravenclaws. Was one of those, like, a friend thing?”

_He’s probably never heard of multiple people dating before._ It was an odd realization – and, even worse, he’d probably have to explain it to people over and over again, or risk them being confused. “No. I’m dating both of them.” Markus and Josh had both said it was okay to tell other people that they were dating.

“Oh.” Cole’s hands moved a little more intensely as he folded and unfolded his tie. “I didn’t know you could date two people at the same time.”

“You can date as many people as you’d like at once,” Simon said, the words coming out surprisingly confidently for how unprepared for this conversation he’d been. “As long as they know and agree to that, and everyone feels loved while still having the time and energy for everything else.”

“That sounds hard. But it also sounds nice. Like how you get love from both of your parents, even though that’s different.”

Simon nodded. He’d never really thought about it that way, but the comparison made sense. _I’d better remember that one… I might need to use it to explain it to my parents._ “Is there anything else you’re confused about?”

“I’m not _confused!_ ” Cole shut his mouth quickly after the outburst. “I mean – I don’t like it when people say that about me.”

_What? I didn’t think that was a bad word…_ “Sorry, I… didn’t know that. Do you want to tell me why?”

“Only if you don’t make fun of me.”

_I wouldn’t ever do that._ “No, I’m not going to make fun of you.”

“Okay… well, my dads wanted me to go to Muggle primary school, but… I had a hard time learning things there. A lot of things didn’t make sense to me, and when I didn’t understand something the teachers would just say I was confused in a way that made me feel really bad about myself, like I’d never be able to get things right. I’d have a lot of feelings that I couldn’t process, so I had meltdowns a lot. My dads started rearranging their work schedules so they could bring me to a smaller wizard-run school instead – apparition and the Floo Network both make me feel sick -- but I always felt really sad about that because it meant we had less time all together, as a family. But I didn’t really know how to explain what I was feeling, so I still had meltdowns, and they didn’t really know why. Then they started seeing a mind healer that specializes in relationships between Autistic and non-autistic people, and she helped them so that they’d be able to communicate with me better. So to me, the word ‘confused’ means something less like ‘doesn’t know’ or ‘has more to learn’ and more like ‘childish’ or ‘a burden’.”

Simon nodded. “Thank you for telling me. Do people here treat you better than when you were at No-Maj – I mean, Muggle school?” It was odd to think about someone who hadn’t at least gone to No-Maj school, when most American wizards graduated from No-Maj high schools, and it was sad to think that a place full of happy memories for Simon could be so different for someone else. He didn’t want the same thing to happen at Hogwarts, especially since, as he now realized, he thought of it as his home.

“They were really worried about that, so they set up a meeting with the headmistress. She’s really nice about setting up accommodations and making sure all the professors follow them. I haven’t really had any problems – at least, not ones that other people aren’t also having.”

Simon chuckled. “That’s good. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

Cole shook his head. “No, that’s it. I think it’s time for me to go meet with my friend Emma now. She’s going to help me with that fucking divination.”

Simon let the swearing go, pretty sure that it had gotten lost among the low buzz of chatter in the common room. And perhaps it was treating him a bit too much like a child if he kept scolding him for it. “Okay. Have fun studying!”

Cole rolled his eyes as he got up. “Yeah, right.”

_I guess I’d better get back to studying. It’s either that, or back to brainstorming ways of bringing the houses together._


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bingo Square: Women as "Whores"

North had ended up by herself while leaving the Gryffindor common room – a rare occurrence after having entered a relationship with Josh, Simon, and Markus, but she’d be meeting up with them soon enough. She hadn’t told anyone yet, and had told them to not say anything unless someone explicitly asked, but there were times when she just wanted to tell the whole world. She probably would, soon.

“North!”

She turned around to see Alice running towards her, panting. “Alice? What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately defensive.

Alice stopped running, leaning against the stone wall as she caught her breath. “Emma… heard from Cole… something about different blokes dating… I don’t know why she’s friends with a Hufflepuff; they’re too gossipy. But then one of the Gryffindor boys in our year overheard, and he said that he’d seen you holding hands with the different blokes that they were talking about! And then he called you a whore!”

Once, there was a time when she would’ve been angry about it, where she would’ve lashed out, gotten herself detention and docked house points, and cried herself to sleep. But she’d been through almost five years at Hogwarts.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to duel him! He’ll never say anything mean about you again after I win!” Alice continued.

But now, that anger was no longer a raging fire, but a low simmer _._ “Alice, I know you’re trying to help me, but did you try telling him not to say that?”

Alice shook her head. “I just overheard the whole thing. We were all in the hall, going back to the common room after class. I was just trying to follow that bloke to tell him I was gonna duel him, but then I lost him in a group of students.”

_It’s exactly what I would’ve done as a third-year._ “I know you’re upset about it, but I’m going to have to give you detention and take away house points if you do that…”

“I don’t care. He was wrong, and he needs to know that!”

_I knew that wouldn’t work._ “What if… _I_ told him that,” North suggested, grasping for anything that might dissuade Alice. She really didn’t want the younger girl getting into trouble after she’d finally been making progress in coming out of her shell.

“But then he’ll know someone told you! And there weren’t that many people around when he said that… he’ll be able to figure out it was me.”

“Then… I’ll make sure he knows, in a way that doesn’t specifically call him out. He won’t know, and you’ll be safe.”

“Only if you can promise,” Alice said, whispering now. “Promise me that I’m not going to get hurt in this. Promise me that he’s not going to say that about anyone else.”

_I can’t promise that… but it’s important to her. I guess I have no choice._ “I promise.”

“Okay. See you later?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later.”

Now to find a way to tell him. _It would be a whole lot more anonymous if I could just tell the whole school to knock it off, and if I wasn’t the only one saying it… and the blokes might listen better if they have other blokes telling them to quit it…_

“I have an idea,” she said as she entered the room where Josh, Simon, and Markus were waiting. She proposed her idea, watching carefully as she saw them slowly go from skeptical to supportive.

“No one likes being bullied, no matter what house they’re in,” Simon said.

“We could stand up in the front of the Great Hall and basically give a lecture,” Josh suggested. “We could probably get help in removing the tables, so they’ll be encouraged to sit with other houses.”

“Maybe we should get some cushions for the floor so they’ll be a little more comfortable,” Markus added. “And North… I know I can speak for all of us when I say that we respect you. Whatever anyone else says… they’ll never speak for us.”

_That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me._ “Thank you.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose to use the extra prompt "sex work" for this chapter.

_Is this pain in my knees normal? Is this what usually happens after Quidditch practice?_ Well, it wasn’t just normal Quidditch practice; Markus had been doing a bunch of extra training by himself since then, trying to fly and keep track of the snitch with only half his sight. _A trip to the library or the infirmary_ would _be helpful… but I’ve got to take care of my team. Not to mention actually studying for classes… and trying to figure out what we should do for our next inter-house event._ Maybe it was time to admit that he’d taken on too much. He wasn’t sure whether the painful idea of letting people down was lesser than the literal pain he was in or not.

“Markus?”

He quickly sat up from where he’d been lounging on the couch of the Slytherin common room. “Zoe! You startled me.”

She smiled good-naturedly. “Sorry. I just… wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me?” He couldn’t think of anything he’d done that would merit a thanks.

“For the inter-house event… you probably haven’t noticed, but people have been using the word ‘whore’ around here for… actually, probably longer than I’ve been here.”

Calling a _thirteen-year-old_ a whore? Now _that_ was… not something Markus thought went on. “I wish you would’ve said something, but I can understand why you didn’t. Whatever people have said about you is _not_ okay, and I won’t tolerate it.”

“Thanks, but they actually weren’t saying it about me. There’s some kids who would call my mum a whore at every opportunity because of what she does. Some of them came up to me and apologized, after the presentation you guys did about sexism and feminism. I don’t know if they’ll stop, but they seemed sincere. One of them even asked how they should refer to what my mom does instead of saying that word. I cast a summoning charm on a thesaurus for him. It hit him right in the face… accidentally.”

Markus cracked a smile, not knowing if it was good that she could joke about things like that, or sad that she’d had to go through them at all. “I’m glad I could help do something about it. But please try not to hit other students in the face with books, accidentally or not. If you ever need anything, all you need to do is ask.”

She nodded, glancing down at her prosthetic hand before shaking her head. Then something else must’ve come to mind. “There is one thing. My mum’s always tried to teach me about… things… but I don’t think most my classmates have parents like that. The other Slytherin girls in my year definitely don’t.”

_Oh._ Markus hadn’t expected that, but… he was willing to try, if North, Simon, and Josh agreed to it. “I never thought about the fact that we don’t teach that here, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Zoe gave a half-smile, rubbing the skin near her prosthetic with her other hand. Markus noticed that it looked slightly red. “Thanks. I’ve got to go recast spells, so I’ll see you at dinner!”

“As long as I don’t see you getting in a duel,” Markus joked.

“I’ll try not to.”

His earlier thoughts completely cast aside, Markus had a new plan. _I’d better write down some ideas and figure out how to propose this to everyone else. I don’t want to let Zoe down._ He moved to stand up from the couch, his earlier pain coming alive again. _And I’ve got to figure out a way to deal with this. Maybe there’s a temporary fix on one of my schoolbooks. Or maybe I should take my own advice and ask for help._


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose the optional prompt of "Sex Ed" for this chapter.

When he returned to the Ravenclaw common room after the sex ed lecture, most of the buzz about it had died down. However, Max was waiting for Josh, and pulled him aside almost immediately after he entered the room. “What’s going on?” Josh asked him when images didn’t immediately start going through his head.

Max shook his head, sitting down at a table where he’d laid out some parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink. “I wanted to talk to you,” he wrote.

“Okay,” Josh said, feeling like something was off. Max usually had no qualms about using his legilimency.

“Is it normal to feel like you’re going to be sick when talking about that kind of stuff?”

Josh was confused, until he realized that Max must be referring to the lecture. “A lot of times it makes people uneasy, which I guess could result in physical symptoms, but I don’t think it’s normal to feel like you’re going to throw up.”

“I felt like that. I’ve been feeling bad a lot lately – not physically, but in my head. That’s why I haven’t been using my legilimency with a lot of people.”

“Is that a normal side effect?” Josh asked. _I know a lot more about legilimency than a lot of people, thanks to Max, but I don’t know anything about what it feels like to actually_ use _it. I never even thought about it until now._

“No. I’ve been doing this since birth. I’d know if this feeling was connected to it, and it isn’t. Not entirely. And only with certain people.”

“Max… I’m not sure how much I can help you. Feeling sick during a sex ed lesson isn’t something I know that much about. Maybe you just ate something bad, or you were coming down with something.”

“You know what you said about people being uncomfortable with their bodies when they change during puberty, and how some people might realize that they don’t fit the gender they were always told they were?”

“I hope you were paying attention to the next thing I said.” It had been hard for him, writing and practicing and then actually presenting that part, because it was so personal. And even though he _did_ have dysphoria, he knew it was possible to _not_ have it, and agonized over how to phrase things so that they would be understandable for his short segment of the presentation, while also being informative enough to actually _teach_ people something. He wasn’t sure that Simon, North, and Markus had as much trouble as he did when they were working on their parts of the presentation – the general timelines of puberty, the reproductive systems, and sex and sexuality, respectively.

“I know that a lot of cisgender people feel uncomfortable with their bodies, too, and that it’s possible to not feel like your gender but also not feel uncomfortable with your body… but I think that’s why I feel this way. And it’s not just my body – using my legilimency on blokes and being called a wizard also both feel wrong.”

“So you’re thinking you’re transgender?” Josh asked. It was funny – if you asked him his first year at Hogwarts what he’d be doing a few years in, this isn’t what he would’ve thought at all. But his magic and his gender had always been so intertwined – his first case of accidental magic had been when he was five and changed the word “witch” to “wizard” on a birthday card – that he really should’ve expected this.

“Yes. I think I’m a girl,” Max wrote. “Could I try some stuff, like having you call me Maxine?”

“Of course,” Josh said. He’d been lucky that his family was accepting, that they’d let him try out different names and things before he’d settled on his current one. He wanted his house to be that kind of a family for Maxine. “If you ever need to talk, I’m here. This can all stay between us for as long as you need it to.”

“I think I’m fine if you tell other prefects. If I had a close group of friends, I’d probably tell them, too, but it’s always been hard making friends. Legilimency doesn’t work the same as words, and a lot of people don’t want to take the time to understand it. And I’m pretty sure I’m the only student who knows British Sign Language.”

“That sounds hard, but… I’ll try and find a way to help. And I’ll let the other prefects know what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Josh.”

Something about the conversation had caused a spark in his mind. _If our own houses are our families… then doesn’t that make the other houses our friends?_ Obviously he’d become more than friends with his fellow prefects, but that didn’t mean that other people from different houses _couldn’t_ be friends… if they had a common goal to work towards. _That’s why the houses work so well. You have to work to get the most house points and cheer on your team in Quidditch. It’s an automatic common goal. Maybe if we set the students up into groups that were mixed between houses, and gave the groups different goals they had to complete, we would see the same thing happen._


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bingo Square: Happy Unmarried Sex

Simon was pretty happy, to say the least, as he left the Great Hall with Josh, North, and Markus. They’d set up groups for every student in the school that contained a student from each of the four houses, and gave them simple tasks to compete that actually required them to work together. He’d been a little worried for some of the students, but after seeing that Cole accidentally found a spell while stimming that allowed one of the Ravenclaw girls to write in the air to communicate, and after seeing that girl make up with a Slytherin she’d almost dueled and bring a rather shy Gryffindor out of her shell, he was convinced that it had been the right idea. He’d even seen Headmistress Stern smiling as she walked among the groups of students.

The Room of Requirement was different from the first time Simon had set foot in it. Instead of four chairs, it had a large bed with purple sheets. He stepped towards the bed, rubbing his hand over them and feeling the texture of satin. _Now that I think about it… this room always gave us what we needed…_

He was distracted from how hard he was getting by Markus landing on the bed and making it bounce, as if he had misjudged the distance. “Shit,” he said under his breath.

North’s eyes widened. “The room did this?” she asked. “And not any of you guys?”

“It gives whatever you require,” Markus said. “And there have been other times that I’ve been here, not knowing exactly what I needed, but the room figured it out perfectly.”

Josh sat down on the bed. “We’re going to do this?” he asked. “Have sex?”

“I never really thought about having sex before I was married, but I want to have sex with the three of you now,” Simon said, surprising himself.

“I do really want this,” said Markus, “If the three of you want me. Let me know when you’re on my right side, like you do in the halls, and please make sure I don’t fall off the bed.” He gave a small chuckle.

Josh took his left hand. “Of course we want you,” he said. “Seeing you play Quidditch definitely helped with _noticing_ you, but there’s so many more reasons why I _love_ you.”

“And, seriously, there’s three of us! You don’t have anything to worry about. We can’t _all_ get that distracted,” North teased.

“Actually, I think the room took care of that possibility,” Simon said, noticing a series of lumps under the covers along the right side of the bed. He pushed on them with his hand, feeling that the pillows were firmer than the ones in the dormitories. “There’s a row of pillows here. I don’t think the room intends for you to fall off the bed.”

“So can we get started?” North asked, seeming excited.

“There’s something else you need to know,” Josh said. “I’m trans. I’m just telling you because it’s going to be kind of obvious, and I’m sure you all probably guessed after the sex ed presentation, but I’m telling you now. Just don’t treat me any differently, now that you know.”

“Is there anything you don’t want us to do? That’s a hard no?” Simon asked, wanting to make sure things were good for him.

“I’m going to leave my shirt on. The spell that makes it seem flat is one that you cast on clothing. The spell also won’t work if you touch my chest at all, so please don’t do that. I don’t think there’s anything else.”

“Do you want to help me take this off?” Markus asked Simon, the two having found themselves sitting the closest together.

“Okay,” Simon said, taking the hem of Markus’ shirt and helping him get it over his head. Seeing the muscles he’d been hiding under his shirt… well, he envied the Slytherin Quidditch team for having gotten to see them all this time. “I want to kiss you so much right now.”

“Then do it.”

Simon straddled Markus’ waist, then leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. Focusing solely on how Markus’ lips and tongue felt under his, and the roughness of Markus’ stubble under his hand as he caressed his face, he didn’t pay attention to where the rest of his body was until sparks flew. “Sorry,” he murmured, lifting his hips up so he was no longer touching Markus’ groin.

“No, that felt good,” Markus said, his hands roaming under Simon’s shirt.

He let himself grind against Markus again, who made it _very_ obvious that he was enjoying this by the hard moans against Simon’s lips and his erection pressing against Simon’s. _When should I suggest that we take our pants off? Or should I? It still feels good this way…_

“You can _do_ that?” North asked rather excitedly.

Simon stopped kissing Markus, breathing heavily as he looked over to see what Josh and North were doing. Apparently they’d gotten a lot farther in the undressing department, with North being only in her underwear and Josh not having any clothing on the lower half of his body.

“See, I _told_ you there was a good reason why I needed my wand,” Josh said. He’d apparently casted a spell on his prosthetic dick that made it vibrate – and North seemed _very_ excited about it.

“ _Simon_ ,” Markus said, bringing Simon’s attention back solely to him. “Can you _please_ do something? They’re being too hot, and I can’t exactly get to my dick when it’s under yours.”

“Sorry,” Simon murmured, pressing small kisses against Markus’ chest instead so he could watch Josh and North easier.

“That’s _so_ much,” North said. Simon stopped with the kisses, looking over to see that Josh was sitting up, North somewhat sitting in his lap so that his dick was against her underwear, as if he was about to push into her. Josh looked amazed, like he’d just seen the stars from the astronomy tower for the first time. _Did he already get off?_

“ _Simon!_ ” Markus complained.

Simon got back to work, pressing kisses just above Markus’ waistband now.

“Shit,” Markus said, hips bucking a little. “Sorry.”

“I can’t sit like this any longer,” North said, “And I don’t think this is working too well for those two, either.”

“I just… don’t know what to do,” Simon said. “It’s kind of a lot. In a good way! But I think I made Markus frustrated.”

“I’m not _that_ frustrated. I just wish you’d… get distracted less? Especially since I’m close.” He glanced at Josh, biting his lip.

Josh leaned over to Markus, whispering something in his ear. Markus nodded enthusiastically before the two began making out.

“Would it help if someone told you exactly what to do?” North asked.

“Maybe,” Simon said.

She took his hand, bringing it to her underwear. “You want to do this?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Okay… it’s right… here,” she said, pressing one of his fingers to a certain spot. “Just make slow circles… okay, not that lightly. You can press harder than that.”

He felt her muscles tense under his hand, and made the circles a little faster. She pulled him in, kissing him firmly for a moment before pulling back. “Did you…?”

“Yeah, I did,” she said.

Markus groaned loudly as he came. Him and Josh exchanged a light kiss before he sat up. “I think I need to get cleaned up.”

“I do, too,” North said, before the two got off the bed.

That left Simon lying next to Josh on the bed.

“Hi,” Josh said, smiling.

“Hi,” Simon said back awkwardly.

There was a lingering tension in the air that they both leaned forward to break at the same time, brushing noses as a result.

“Ow,” Josh said, laughing.

“Can we try that again?”

“Yeah.” This time, their lips met properly. “You know, I didn’t know what I was doing today, either,” Josh said.

“So Ravenclaws _don’t_ know everything?” Simon teased.

“School subjects, sure, I’m good at those. But there’s plenty that doesn’t come as easily. Don’t tell Markus, but… I still don’t know the rules of Quidditch. They just don’t make sense half the time.”

“Luckily you don’t need to know the rules to have fun watching.” They went back to kissing, Simon’s hand finding its way to Josh’s thick black curls.

“Can I touch you?” Josh asked breathily.

Simon nodded, then froze as he came as soon as Josh touched him. “Sorry,” he apologized, mentally berating himself for thinking that he’d be able to last through three different people in his literal first time. Now that he thought about it, the thought was clearly unrealistic.

“It’s fine,” Josh said, pressing some more light kisses to Simon’s lips.

“Do you need anything?” Simon asked, noticing that Josh had apparently used whatever spell made his prosthetic stop vibrating.

“No, I already came a couple times. I’m _way_ too tired for more.”

“As much as I’d like to lay here, I think we should go clean up. Then maybe we can all… lay here together?” He was starting to see the appeal of cuddling.

“You’re right. I think I saw that the room had made us a loo in here as well as all this.”

Simon couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day… well, actually, maybe a little longer than that.


End file.
